BUMBLEBEES CD - Mick Connelly’s - Possible other tune title?

Hello, I’ve been enjoying the CD BUMBLEBEES (https://thesession.org/recordings/3426). The second tune on the first track is titled “Mick Connelly’s”. In the liner notes it says it’s “a popular reel at sessions throughout the country”. I haven’t been able to find a transcription of it or another recorded example. Does anyone know if it might go by another name? Sorry I can’t provide an audible link for listening. It’s an unusual tune and I’m having trouble sorting it out.

Haven’t heard the track. But I wonder if the tune in question isn’t meant to be “Mick Conneely’s,” named after the fiddler of Bedford, England, with North Connemara roots. Not that I’m seeing a reel by that name either. But it could be any reel, accredited to him. Can you post a clip of the track?

Another possibility: “Connelly’s” is an alternate name for The Whistling Postman (https://thesession.org/tunes/586).

gimpy, thank you for your suggestions. It definitely isn’t The Whistling Postman. I also re-read the liner notes and the comment I quoted before was actually attributed to the third tune…not the second. About the tune in question, they say they “learned it from a Danish group (The MacMortosen Trio)” - so it may be a non-traditional tune. That’s probably the reality of it - as it has a peculiar B part.

As far as it being from Mick Conneely - that’s a possibility. I have a couple of his CDs and I don’t recognize it as being on either one. It is a strange tune. The A part is pretty straightforward, but the B part is crooked with a unique second half. I have the tune alone isolated in an MP3 file, but I don’t see any way to post it here. I will probably try to work out the ABC within a day or two. If I do, I’ll post it here. Thanks for your suggestions.

Bribak, if you get stuck trying to transcribe it, you could upload the MP3 to Soundcloud and then link here to that. Or message me directly and we’ll figure out a way to get the MP3 to me and I’ll happily transcribe it for you.

Another option is to share your abc transcription of as much as you can do, and then the hive mind here will have an answer or can hunt it down using the abcs to search (e.g., through Reverend’s ABC Tune Search).

gimpy, Thanks again. I will be working on the transcription. If I get stuck, I’ll certainly take advantage of your kind offer. I will run it through Reverend’s tune search if I get it done.

OK. Here’s what I came up with transcribing it. This matches the CD very closely - minus embellishment. The tune is very crooked and it just repeats this entire piece. I’d be surprised if this is traditional. Playing it back on my tenor banjo alone doesn’t sound very impressive - but they do a great job with it on the CD. I don’t know theory, so I’m basically guessing at the key.

X:1
T:Mick Connelly’s
C:
N:
L:1/8
Q:
M:4/4
K:Bm
|: D2 AD BD A2 | DE FD GE =CE | D2 AD BD A2 | DE FD GE =CE | D2 AD BD A2 | DE FD GE =CE |
D2 AG GA F2 | AG GA F2 AD | D2 AG GA F2 | AG GA F2 A2 | D2 AG GA F2 | AG GA F2 A2 |
E2 =cB Bc A2 | =cB Bc AA c2 | E2 =c2 Bc A2 | =cB Bc A2 c2 :| |

@Bribak – It seems to be in D (or D Mixolydian, since all the Cs are natural). If it were Bm, we would expect the note B to appear with one or both of the other notes of a B minor triad (D and F#) as a prominent feature of the melody. Instead, the most prominent notes seem to me to be those of a D major triad (D, F# and A), followed by those of a C major triad (C♮, E and G) forming a C triad – a typical chord progression for the Mixolysian mode. (Using ‘DMix’ for the ‘k’ field in abc gives you one sharp (F#) in the key signature, so there is then no need to use ‘=’ for the Cs).

As the tune preceding this one in the set is a Québécois tune, and this one has an odd structure, it is tempting to think that it might be of the same origin, but listening to it in my head, it does not remind me of anything Québécois. The first couple of bars sound as if they could be from an Irish tune (reminiscent of The Galway Rambler), but the two literal repetitions (i.e. 3 times in all) of these bars are very atypical of Irish music. It is possible that it was conceived (by Mick Conneely?) as a tune that fuses an Irish melodic style with a Québécois structure. But, in fact, I find that the internal repetition structure (i.e. within each section) more reminiscent of Breton music than Québécois.

Anyway, this is just semi-informed brainstorming – I enjoyed it, but it doesn’t get you any closer to finding a title…

The original post has an important error. Bribak’s quote “a popular reel at sessions throughout the country” refers to the third tune in the set, “The Guns of the Magnificent Seven”. The second tune, according to the sleeve notes, was learnt “from the Danish froup MacMortosen Trio” [sic - Mac Mortensen’s Trio?].

CreadurMawnOrganig - Thanks so much for your comment and explanation. I tried Dmix for the key and it did clean it up very nicely. I need to put some work into better understanding the appropriateness of the different keys. I was simplistically tallying up the sharps and simply picking between D and Bm (the tune had a minor sound to my ear).

As far as its origin, it would be interesting to know definitively where it came from. The Bumblebees other CD also has some tunes that I don’t associate with the Irish tradition. They seem(ed) like a group with an eclectic taste in music. Maybe the inclusion of Laoise Kelly’s harp in the band makes some of these tunes work nicely where they otherwise wouldn’t?

Nigel Gatherer - in my second post, I mentioned my mistake of incorrectly attributing the quote to the wrong tune. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any additional info on the Danish group MacMortosen Trio" (Mac Mortensen’s Trio?) I was hoping maybe to find a recorded example of this tune by them.

@Bribak – The Bumblebees have played quite a number of Québécois tunes, which is what made me think in that direction.

“…in my second post, I mentioned my mistake…”

Oops, so you did; missed that.

The bit |D2 AG GA F2| reminds me of a Breton-ish tune, and I swear I can hear (in my head) Lunasa playing it. But can’t think of what it is (and it’s likely not this “Mick Connelly’s” anyway).

@gimpy – Yes, the way the first line repeats the same short section exactly three times (and the second line, but with a few small variations) seems characteristically Breton to me.

@gimpy:
I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of The Longacre - https://thesession.org/tunes/2776

The A part has a similar drone pattern, but in A: A2eA fdec
The B part has the other phrase, also in A: A2ed dec2

Jeff, yes, that’s it, thanks! It’s the B part that it reminds me of.

Yes. The Longacre really does have a similar sound.

gimpy: “It’s the B part that it reminds me of.”

The A-part is a fairly good match as well. It seems as if it is a conscious re-working of The Long Acre (or ‘re-purposing’ of some of its melodic material). According to https://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/LON_LOP.htm , The Long Acre is a Kevin Burke composition – which might explain the Breton feel, as he has worked together with Breton fiddler Christian Lemaître for many years in Celtic Fiddle Festival.

The Kevin Burke tune isn’t the same one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKvlJWTHteQ

play video

https://thesession.org/tunes/5424

@jeff_lindqvist: Ah, OK. FIddler’s Companion does not show the abc for that particular tune, and only lists one tune under that title (there are three by that name in the database here). I would not have guessed that the tune Kevin Burke plays in the above clip was a ‘new’ tune.